Castlevania: Kings of Darkness (Working Title)
by Harley Walter
Summary: This follows the adventures of Michael Reddtombe, rejected from the Brotherhood of Light, Michael makes his own way as a Hunter of things that go bump in the night. Not sure if AU or Parallel Adventure, leaning toward PA. Warning will be VERY similar to LoS. Please R&R. Disclaimer: Everything belongs to Konami, except for my OC's.
1. Chapter 1

Michael Reddtombe sat before the fire, sharpening the blade of his sword, listening to the sound of the Lycans howling to each other in the distance. He shivered in the night air and wrapped his blue leather cloak tighter around him. Michael smirked in spite of himself. He's going to enjoy tomorrow when he severs the heads of those two legged wolves. The Brotherhood of Light may have rejected him but they will live to regret it when he steals the jobs right out from under them. He even went and had this infernal cloak made, specifically made of blue leather and silver accents to be the exact opposite of their uniform. Since he was not a Brother, he did not wield the combat cross, but he could swing an unrivaled blade. Doesn't matter what creature of the night it is, it can't live without a head.

Michael sighed and leaned against the tree at his back, memories swirling around in his head. Like many who grow up to be Hunters, he was an orphan left only with a book, detailing the different monsters and their strengths and weaknesses. He spent many nights in the orphanage staying up late by the lantern, never wanting to put the book down. He, like many other orphans was without a surname. When the nurses at the orphanage found him upon their doorstep, with his bright eyes and beautiful features, they named him Michael, after the most powerful and most beautiful Archangel. Young Michael came across a picture at the end of his book, of a large grave filled with the blood and corpses of every creature described in the book and thus came his last name "Reddtombe", meaning "Red Grave".

For several years he believed the book to be merely for entertainment purposes only, until one night a Vampire attacked his orphanage and he managed to kill it with some holy water he made from a recipe in the book one day while he was bored. It was then that he knew his destiny reached far beyond the walls he grew up surrounded by. Upon his 13th birthday when the children are allowed to choose a local tradesman and ask to become their protege, the others went to Bakers, Blacksmiths, Caretakers, all the common ones. Michael however, approached the local Knight, ordered to lead the local "militia" if the need arose. The Knight was both impressed by the tenacity of the young man, and intrigued by him and after some pleading agreed to take him on and train him to wield a sword.

At age 18 he had approached the Brotherhood and asked to join their ranks. He had trained in combat for 5 years and was willing to learn more, as long as it allowed him to fight all manner of creature. The Elders laughed at him, told him the Brotherhood was no place for a child and sent him on his way. He then spent the next 5 years training with various other weapons and fighting forms, taking small jobs from surrounding areas, a Vampire here, a Lycan there. But this, this was his big break, an entire pack of Lycans and their Warg steeds. He heard an Alpha was among them, but he has never heard of any true sightings of one, nor has he ever seen one, so he will go prepared, but he does not expect it to exist.


	2. Chapter 2

Sunrise awoke Michael from his fitful slumber. He groaned quietly as he stretched out his still sleeping limbs. Then he began searching the ground for signs the Lycans had been through here. A few minutes passed before he found a soft paw print a few yards from where he had slept. The man cloaked in blue sighed and began following the tracks.

However, it did not take long to stumble upon the sleeping pack. It was a small pack, sleeping the day away until night came and the moon empowered them. He quickly slashed the throats of the Warg beasts, knowing they would give him the most trouble. Unfortunately before he could do the same to the sleeping Lesser Lycans, one whose sensitive ear caught the sound of the blade across flesh, startled awake and woke up the others. Once again a sigh escaped the lips of Michael. He then charged, cutting off limbs, blocking slashes and severing heads until all lay dead around. For a moment, he believed himself to be done when he heard a scrambling in the bushes and took off after the smaller Lesser Lycan, most likely a scout, knowing it would lead him to the rest of the pack. He chased it on foot to meet up with three others when he heard the sound of galloping hooves, and on the road just outside the forest he saw a flash of red as a member of the Brotherhood rode by on a white horse, being chased by Warg Riders.

Michael scoffed at the coward attempting to escape from a small pack of Lycans. Then he wondered if maybe he wasn't running from them, but toward their Alpha, if it existed, and that's why their attention was mostly on him. So he quickly kicked off a passing Rider and took control of a Warg, it did not pay attention to its shift in riders. Probably because he was covered in Lycan blood, so he smelled like a Lycan. He followed as quickly as the beast would allow, slashing the Riders he passes by, until he saw the white horse, which he could now see was decorated with glowing runes, probably some form of light magic creature summoned to aid this man, jump off the cliff and sent the Brother onto the other cliff across the gorge. He tried to follow but the Warg stopped suddenly as he is flung off it's back and over the cliff, heading straight for some Ivy on the cliff side. When he landed and rolled on solid ground he knew the plants were covering the entrance to a cave and started following it out.

All manner of normal creature tried to stop him, large spiders and trolls mostly, but they were no match for his blade. He stepped out of the cave and into the light, and once again he was falling, landing on something soft, and furry, and alive. Looking around him as his eyes adjusted, he found himself in what appeared to be a small arena. The stands were crowded with Lesser and Greater Lycans, along with humans who have either not been bitten or have not seen their first moon yet. Michael was surprised to see such a "civilized" community structure, even if it was a temple of blood and violence.

Then he remembered what he landed on and found himself looking a the top of a Great Warg, that was beginning to realize prey had landed on it's back. Thinking quickly, Michael buried his sword in it's skull before it could move, saved by it's momentary confusion. The spectators roared out in anger and began swarming the floor. A loud, long howl stopped them dead in their tracks and Michael got his first view of an Alpha. It was far from what he was expecting. He had expected something as big and powerful as a Warg but with the mind and bipedal build of a Lycan. However, he saw this was not the case and that an Alpha is caught somewhere between Human and Lycan, with the powers of a Lycan but the full thoughts and faculties of a Human. The Alpha seemed to be a bit on the Lycan side, with the seemingly backwards legs and hairy body, even with a wolven face. However his eyes shone with a Human intelligence that made Michael instantly wary of this new foe.

Then his eyes rested upon the sword in the Alpha's hand. It was not a straightsword or broadsword which is what is commonly used by all beings who wield swords. it was curved, slightly, coming to a soft point. The blade was made of a dark metal, nearly black, even in this sunlight. The handle however, was the same as any straightsword, a cross-guard and hilt shaped like a T, with the leather on the hilt also black. Michael almost jumped in surprise when it started to speak.

"You have come to the wrong place, Human. Now you shall be turned or eaten, whichever I feel like doing." He smirked a fanged smile and charged with his sword held high.

"Wrong, I shall wipe out your pack today and deal a great blow to the forces of Darkness!" Michael also charged forward, sword at the ready. Not held high like the Alpha, he wanted to save his energy, while the Alpha, with its strength and stamina has no worries about holding his sword aloft like that.

To say the swords met with a clang would be a lie, the Alpha's blade cut right through his like warm butter. Michael luckily saw this coming and side stepped the slash in time. He flipped what was left of his sword into an inverted grip as he was taught to do when wielding a dagger, and hoped the hilt could stop the Alpha's blade.

Michael was a strong young man, in his prime at 23 and on a very strict exercise regimen, which is usually enough to counter Lesser and sometimes Greater Lycans but he had no chance head-to-head with the Alpha, he had never felt anything like it. He caught the blade on the hilt and noticed it stopped it but the blade had bit into his cross-guard. He grabbed the Alpha's wrist and quickly slashed up it's sword arm. He saw the pain in its eyes and it's threw it's arms out in pain, tossing it's sword and his away from them before attacking the now unarmed man. Michael stood at the ready, he saw the Alpha's mouth open to bite him and Michael took the chance and shoved hi fist down the beast's throat. Careful not to cut himself on the teeth, and while it was stuck there and gagging, Michael grabbed a throwing knife with his left hand and slashed across the beast's belly. He let it fall dead at his feet before picking up it's sword and preparing to fight off the rest. A majority of the Lycans ran from the one who could slay their Alpha, but a handful of Greaters charged, hoping to overpower him and take revenge, only to be cut down by Michael's new sword. He let the other's go, scattered to the four winds and knew someone would pick them off, one by one.

He marched into the Alpha's "throne room" and saw all the gold and dead bodies littered around the seat of power. he found what he was looking for, the scabbard to his new blade but something else caught his eye, a trinket, silver with a sickly green gem in it. He touched it and felt power course through him and a voice spoke in his mind.

'_This is the power of Death, the end of all. Use it to complete the arduous journey ahead of you. Call upon its power and instill fear in the hearts of your enemies.'_

He did not know where it came from but he found it clipped to his belt easily, as though it were made for him. He then carried on, in the weathered mountains and found himself face to face with Cornell, Lord of the Lycans...


	3. Chapter 3

The Wolf Lord chuckled. "Well, well, well, what do we have here? A little Human, begging for death at the hands of a Lord of Shadow?"

Michael steadied a defiant gaze. "No, I do not wish to fight you. But I will if I have to. I had been tasked with killing the pack that had been plaguing the local village."

At this, Cornell noticed the sword hanging on the human's waist. "Killed one of my Alphas did you? Congratulations, I'm impressed. I'm not easy to impress either." He stopped and looked wistfully into the distance as though he were listening to a far off sound. "You're lucky, kid. It is not your fate to die by my hands. But without me your destiny will not be fulfilled. Call it the influence of my Angel counterpart but here, take this, you'll know when to use it." In a cloud of purple smoke, Cornell summoned forth a large vial, capped with a stopper shaped like a wolf's head. Michael had no plans to use whatever this was, but he knew better than to anger a shadow Lord, so he took it in silence.

He looked up to where Cornell was suddenly looking and saw the red cloak of that Brother from earlier peeking over the hill. Cornell looked at him. "Looks like it's time to fulfill my destiny too. Leave, now, before I change my mind and eat you, boy."

Not needing to be told twice, Michael left quickly, travelling up the mountain until he had the perfect vantage point. He watched the battle between the Brother and Cornell, and was extremely surprised when he saw the figure in red kill the Shadow Lord. Michael then quickly moved on into what appeared to be an area that wreaked of death and decay. He stumbled into a small graveyard milling with Zombies and Skeletons and moved in swiftly, stabbing and cutting through the small band of slow creatures. before moving into another small graveyard with more of the Undead. Confused, but still on the attack, Michael slashed and thrusting through them as well.

Then he walked into a large Church graveyard in front of an even larger than necessary Church. It was more like a Castle than a place of worship. With a yell of frustration he charged at this crowd of Undead as well.

He fought wave after wave of Zombies and Skeletons, and even came across a few dead Brothers in a particularly large lair in the center of the Church. He felt the same draw as before and reached down toward one of the dead Brothers when he was tackled by three other Brotherhood corpses and heard the same voice laugh from all three of them, and echo from down the hall, coming closer until he saw it, a large skull, held aloft on wings of bone. Then he heard the voice from the four mouths again as it spoke to him. "Welcome young warrior, welcome to the lair of the Lord of the Undead." Then he saw the confused look on the man's face. "While there are the three more powerful Lords, the Lords of Shadow. There are others, the origins of all the things hunted by the Brotherhood. While the Lords of Shadow often control our children as well, we do not mind for it keeps their anger off of us. I am the King of the Undead, a King of Darkness! Now perish and join my army!"

Michael struggled a bit and something in him snapped and his eyes glowed the same pale green as the trinket on his belt. Then he was seemingly lit ablaze with green flames that shaped themselves to look like bones covering his body and he threw the Brotherhood corpses off of him and across the room and unsheathed his sword.

The King of the Undead laughed. "Very interesting, the Dark Magic of Death. I underestimated you." And then the Brother's corpses melted into a pile of flesh colored slime and oozed over to the Undead King. Within moments, a tall, grotesque creature stood before him. It looked like a man, but was completely nude and was missing flesh in several places, its head was the Skull of the Undead King, whose wings were now folded to look like a crown and was wearing a larger version of the Brotherhood cloak.

Michael smirked, then charged at the large beast. His flames swallowed his sword as well, sending out flaming slashes with each swiped as he cut into the King of Darkness. It was a long and difficult battle, until Michael decided to do what he does with every creature, and cut the head off. The body turned into ooze once again and then he leapt at the flying head. He slashed it directly in half and then blue light shot at him from the inside of both halves and grabbed his wrists. Then the three of them fell to the ground.

Michael watched the skull pieces dissolve and he found he now had arm-guards, connected to finger less leather gloves. The guards themselves were striped and silver, with small curved blades on the side. Then the draw to that body consumed him again and he walked over to it, searching when he found a trinket identical to the first, except for it held an orange gem within it. That voice spoke in his head once again.

_'This is the power of Hope, the spark of life. Without it nothing would have the will to live. Use it to fight the forces of Darkness.'_

Michael smirked as he made his way out the back of the Church and fell again, but when he flailed his arms he saw wings of light spread out from him and propel him upward and forward and he grabbed the edge of the neighboring cliff. He was so tired of almost dying from cliffs. He began walking away from the old church when he came across several Ghosts floating around, after succeeding in killing them with the sword he was thankful that the Lycan blade was made of a supernatural metal. Then he came across several more in the next area and from his experience with the Land of the Undead along with his brief time in Cornell's domain, he was beginning to see a pattern and expected the next "King of Darkness".


End file.
